A formed part, such as the top cover or front panel of home appliances or a center console of automotive vehicles, may require a final finish on the exterior of the formed part to provide an aesthetic touch or functional purpose. The formed parts may include a metallic part such as a steel part, or a non-metallic part. The formed part may be formed by molding, stamping, or thermoforming.
For large parts such as car doors, refrigerator doors, and dishwasher doors, for example, thermoforming a laminate to the part has resulted in unwanted tearing, or rippling of the laminate as it is stretched over the part, resulting in an unacceptable product. While such tearing and rippling occurs relatively infrequently for smaller parts, such as laptop cases, the thermoforming techniques used for smaller parts have not provided satisfactory results for larger parts.